<p>not trying to get the last word, honestly.</p>
<p>Fiske for ex, does not rank. Instead it divides up into the schools that rank 5, 4, 3 and 2 academically. Evidently they found the groupings too arbitrary, so they added 3.5, and 4.5.</p>
<p>Now what if a school is in between the 4s and 4.5s? (by whatever criteria Fisk uses). Its arbitrary to put it into one group or the other. If you use Fisk that way, as cut off, its going to be arbitrary at the edge.</p>
<p>If there is another way you have in mind, please share it. All I see are A. Equally arbitrary or more arbitrary rankings/groupings B. “My kid only wanted a school offering musical theater in New England in a town between 200,000 and 700,000 population, and there were only two, so we didnt need a ranking to make a cut” or things to that effect.</p>